The million pound banknote

Then it all flashed on me, and I owned up like a man.

'I took the dearest girl in this world - into my heart.'

So then he came over with a rush, and we shook hands, and shook, and shook till our hands ached; and he didn't blame me for not having heard a word of a story which had lasted while we walked three miles. He just sat down then, like the patient, good fellow he was, and told it all over again.

Synopsized, it amounted to this: He had come to England with what he thought was a grand opportunity; he had an option to sell the Gould and Curry Mine extension for the locators of it, and keep all he could get over a million dollars.

He had worked hard, had pulled every string he knew of, had left no honest expedient untried, had spent nearly all the money he had in the world, had not been able to get a single capitalist to listen to him, and his option would run out at the end of the month. In a word, he was ruined. Then he jumped up and cried out:

'Henry, you can save me! You can save me, and you're the only man in the universe that can. Will you do it? Won't you do it? Give me a million and my passage home for my 'option'! Don't, don't refuse!'

Vocabulary:

Flashed on me: 'Made me suddenly realise'
Own up: Confess
Synopsized: Put briefly
Amount: Add up to
Locators: Here, the people who had found the new part of the mine
Pull strings: Use one's influence
Expedient: Method of doing something
Capitalist: Someone who invests money for profit
Passage: Here this means 'money for a journey'